Let's talk letters and numbers...

jmlushbough

Hi, all! Just moving over to this board with a new 2-year old! I can't believe it, but that's a whole other post, right?

So, my question is about kiddos this age and learning letters and numbers. Where are your kids at with this? Can they count? How high? Can they say their ABC's? How far? Recognize numbers or letters by sight? How many? Are they even interested in it?

I know, I know... Let's not compare and all that. But I'm just interested to see where others are at, and what other parents are concentrating on in this arena. 

Violet's Mommy

DD has been sining her ABCs for a while but only just now starting to recognize the letters for what they are. We are trying to work learning them a little more into our play day. Numbers for since right after two she could coubt to 20. Obviously not objects but the order. For the last few months she's been able to actually understand how many of something there is up til about 10 items but sometimes doesn't seem to get it. Anything up to five she always gets though...I am also still working on her recogbizing the looks (1,2,3 etc.)

VTFutureMrs

DS just turned to 2 as well. He can recognize about 10 letters and about 5 numbers. He can count up to 11, but he cannot sing his ABC's.

Abinormal

Tegan's been able to sing her ABCs for awhile, probably since 19/20 months. She can currently count to 20, but sometimes needs a little help once she's past 12 or 13. She can count 2-3 objects but definitely has moments where she messes up the counting. She seems to recognize some numbers (1-6 mainly), but isn't interested in trying to recognize letters. We do work on it a little bit but only through an iPhone app that I found, books and puzzles which are all things that she enjoys.

Amy&Andy

My kid can spell his name, but can't recognize numbers or letters. He just started trying to say the ABC's, but can sing twinkle twinkle little star. He tries to count things, but usually says " 3, 3, 4". No idea why.

mbgreenwalt

DD can count to 11 and she likes to count backwards from 4 (she did this on her own).  She counts stairs to 11 when she is walking down them, but when objects are laid out she only counts them to 4.  She cannot visually identify numbers.

She likes when we sing her the ABCs and asks for us to sing, but she only sings sections (abc, efg, lmnop or qrs).  She cannot visually identify letters. 

Leap08

hmmm... My daughter has been able to sing her ABCs all the way through for awhile now, before she turned 2. She also recognizes almost all the letters (she gets a few of them mixed up) and can tell you what sound they make. She can also tell you that her name starts with "T" and mommy starts with "M" and daddy starts with "D". She counts to about 20 (although she sometimes skips numbers). She also recognizes numbers 1-10. If I give her small quantities of something, she can tell me how many there are up to about 5 or 6, after that she starts to recount items. They work on letters and number a lot at daycare. If she didn't go to "school" I'm not sure she'd know all of that. 

superaunt

she's been counting for several months now but she's an early talker and we always count the stairs going in and out of our apartment. plus she loves Team Umizoomi where there's lots of counting. she can count to 20 no problem. sometimes she skips a number but for the most part, she's mastered counting 1-20. that said, she doesn't know her numbers by sight. she knows that it's a number but not which number (consistently).

she's been saying her ABC's for at least 6 months if not longer. but again, she's an early talker and she loves singing. she knows when a letter is a letter opposed to a number or shape or something, but she doesn't know A from Z (consistenly).

but again, she was early with a lot of things and she goes to a daycare center/preschool.

wall0307

DS #1 is three, so I'm going for memory for most of this.  I know he could "count" to ten and sing his ABC's a little before two.  He can currently count to twenty, although the teens aren't clear.  There a lot thirfteens in there  Around 2 he understood the concept of 2.  I remember him telling me there were 2 fans in his room.  He does actually count to about 10.  He points at items and counts, although he sometimes recounts items.  He recognizes that things are letters or numbers, and he occassionally gets them right, but I don't think he knows them.  He is definitely interested in letters, and he'll soon move to the preschool room at daycare.  I'm thinking they'll help him identify them soon.

Blackvelvet

I think I focus on numbers more as they are my thing.  DS can count to 13 and he can do math with numbers in that range, we add and subtract and even a little multiplication.  He can identify numbers up to 11 and show me the right ones.  As for letters those are the ABC's all leters are an ABC and he doesn't know any more

 

MammaBear81

DD 2 turned 2 in February, she can point to all her letter and numbers up to ten.  She can only say 1,2,3 because she has a speech delay, she does not speak any letters or sing the alphabet.  We are working on sounds the letters make, but it will probably get better when she starts talking.

bobbs420

DS has been counting since he was about 16 months or so. He can count up to 20 now, but sometimes skips numbers and needs help remembering. As far as his alphabet goes, he knows all of his letters, and mostly in order. This has been since about 21 months maybe? He liked letters and numbers really early. It was always just something that he was interested in.

honeybee111

DD turned 2 in Jan.  She's been able to recite the ABC's since about 18 months.  She can recognize A, B, and C.  She calls all the other letters either A or B.

She can say her numbers up to 15 and can recognize 1-5.  She has some beginning number sense - will point at objects and "count" them out, but sometimes she repeats herself or get mixed up.  She can also compare quantities. I don't do any specific practicing activities, just little stuff like this: During snack time, I will make 2 groups - 3 crackers, 4 crackers, and put 1 more on the table.  She'll examine each pile and move the extra cracker to the smaller pile.

msnehz

DD knows letters, shapes, numbers up to 13 and colors.  She can identify them no problem. She calls out shapes, letter and colors she sees wherever, whenever. Its cute but can get exhausting at time since she needs me to acknowledge by repeating it back to her. Otherwise she keeps saying the same letter/shape/color over and over! She can also recognize and spell her name, "dog" and "cat"

MrsWindyCity

DS can say/sing and identify all uppercase letters, and a few lowercase ones. He can also spell  his name (well "Zach"); not write it of course but can recite the 4 letters and find them with his foam letters in the tub or recognize it on paper, etc.

He can count to 20, but 13-16 sound very similar and he sometimes skips one or two of them. ETA: he can identify the numbers 1-9.

DS is VERY interested in these things, especially letters, which is why he learned them fairly early on (he could identify all of them around 21ish months). We pretty much take his lead on things. Since he was always pointing them out, asking about them, etc. we went with it. 

Pier1girl

DD has known her ABCs for awhile (around age 2) and can count to 20 in English and 10 in Spanish.  She can recognize all of her letters and numbers too.

She can recognize and spell her name also.

celiabwatson

My son is more of a numbers guy. He started around 20 months noticing when there was more than one of something and saying there were two (no matter how many). Then we started counting to see if there were two or maybe some other number... After a while there were three of everything

Currently he can count to 11, but he rarely counts one and two, he starts with 3. He counts objects but rarely gets the right number due to the fact that he skips one and two, but he counts all day long!

Letters he's not super interested in. He notices them and somehow knows that they are letters and not numbers. He does know O, and T, and sometimes P. Those letters are on the "top" of his booster seat so he sees them as he's climbing up and sometimes stops and says them over and over (no idea how he knew what letters they were the first time, I didn't tell him). He may know more letters but I've never heard him show any interest. 

BrittKav

My kids counts to 10 in her own way- 1,2,3,6,7,8,9,10. 4 and 5 don't exist in her world.

She can sing the alphabet.

She doesn't recognize any letters or numbers by sight. 

segerama

Wow, I am impressed my all of the responses.  My daughter started singing the alphabet around 2 and half.  She just recently started counting to 10 (occasionally is silly and says the numbers out of order).  She also is able to pick out the 3-5 letters consistently.  I haven't pushed her to learn the letters and numbers.  She is very vebal and able to carry on conversations.  At this point, I am focusing on giving her plenty of opportunities to explore and be creative.  She will learn when she is ready.

mari_gold

DS can count to 11, more or less, and he recognizes letters and numbers by sight. He can sing the ABCs, but I don't know if that is anything more than a song to him right now. I'm guessing not.

davidswife06

Riley can count to 10 and count 4 objects. She can sing the ABCs and she knows at least 6 letters by sight (she would know more, but it's my fault for not working on them consistently...) and tell you what they're for (i.e., R is for Riley, M is for Mommy, etc.). She knows shapes and colors and sings MANY songs all the way through with hand motions. 

juliane2004

DD can recognize numbers 1 - 10. She can't really "count" though. She kind of says 1, 2, 3, but then goes 5, 8, 3, 4.

She can recognize B and E. She cannot sing ABCs. She dislikes when *I* sing it. lol

juliane2004

bobbs420:

DS has been counting since he was about 16 months or so. He can count up to 20 now, but sometimes skips numbers and needs help remembering. As far as his alphabet goes, he knows all of his letters, and mostly in order. This has been since about 21 months maybe? He liked letters and numbers really early. It was always just something that he was interested in.

Holy crap! Are you serious????? Wow. DS is almost 16 months and can't even say Mama, let alone numbers, let alone COUNT! lol wow

Kelly820

My DS can identify all his capital letters in any order, and has been able to since around 22 months. He also counts to 17, knows his colors, and is starting to show interest in shapes. For the letters, he seriously hates the alphabet song, won't let me sing it, and doesn't know it. He learned his letters because he was obsessed with hearing the NBA alphabet book (all about basketball). 

Kingston54

LO can count to 20.  He misses numbers, goes out of order, etc but he will often "try".  He knows the ABCs to sing them.  He can recognize a few letters and a few numbers.  He's not interested in a sit down and learn way but more so when he will see a number 4 he'll say "that's four", etc.

cherrys

DS recognizes about 90% of his letters.  He gets stuck on G, J, W (he says M), U, X.

He sings his ABC's:  ABCDEFLMNOPQ

He recognizes numbers 2, 5 and 8.  He can hold up his 2 fingers.

As far as colors, he knows yellow, blue, purple.

And he started peeing in the potty mid week last week.

CObride2006

At about 2 DS could recognize all of his letters and know what sounds they make.  He hated the ABCs song and never let me sign it.  Just recently at 2.5 he started singing it himself. 

At 2.5 he can count to 16 and can recognize numbers 1-8. 

He is much more a letters guy than numbers. 

smiling76

As a mom of a special needs child, can I just come clean and say that I secretly hate these posts.  But I'm going to go ahead and share because maybe it'll help other moms out there who are in the same situations and feel "sad" when you see all the great things that kids younger than theirs are doing.  (which I'm happy for them, just sad for mine).

So I will say that my son is very much speech delayed---and has some sensory issues--which I think have accounted for other issues in learning for him.  We have him in a special school and he's doing great.  Since then he's been trying very hard to sing the alphabet song---he knows it--but because of speech apraxia, can't actually get the brain to get it out of his mouth--so he fills in the blanks.  But I will say he thoroughly enjoys what he can sing. 

For numbers--around Halloween last year he really started understanding counting and would actually 'count' candy when we went trick or treating--it was awesome!  "two mommy"---I was never so excited!!!     We've been practicing saying "one, two, three" and counting to five.  And we count things out in activities.  He can count with his fingers.  He tries so hard and I'm so proud of him.

 

AppleMomma

I feel like my son is behind, but we're patiently working with him. So far he can count along with us to 5, and gets to G with us. He's not talking sentences yet, much less words, but he comprehends EVERYTHING. It seems that running behind in talking is a normal thing on MH's side of the family.